Chapter 10 Inheritance and Polymorphism Dr. Hikmat Jaber 1
Motivations Suppose you will define classes to model circles, rectangles, and triangles. These classes have many common features. What is the best way to design these classes so to avoid redundancy? The answer is to use inheritance. Inheritance is the process of deriving new class from an existing class. Inheritance is an important feature for software reusability. 2
Superclasses and Subclasses -color: String -filled: boolean GeometricObject -datecreated: java.util.date +GeometricObject() +GeometricObject(color: String, filled: boolean) +getcolor(): String +setcolor(color: String): void +isfilled(): boolean +setfilled(filled: boolean): void +getdatecreated(): java.util.date +tostring(): String -radius: double +Circle() Circle +Circle(radius: double) +Circle(radius: double, color: String, filled: boolean) +getradius(): double +setradius(radius: double): void +getarea(): double +getperimeter(): double +getdiameter(): double +printcircle(): void The color of the object (default: white). Indicates whether the object is filled with a color (default: false). The date when the object was created. Creates a GeometricObject. Creates a GeometricObject with the specified color and filled values. Returns the color. Sets a new color. Returns the filled property. Sets a new filled property. Returns the datecreated. Returns a string representation of this object. -width: double -height: double +Rectangle() Rectangle +Rectangle(width: double, height: double) +Rectangle(width: double, height: double color: String, filled: boolean) +getwidth(): double +setwidth(width: double): void +getheight(): double +setheight(height: double): void +getarea(): double +getperimeter(): double GeometricObject Circle Rectangle TestCircleRectangle 3
import java.util.date; public GeometricObject() { datecreated = new Date(); public GeometricObject(String Color, boolean filled) { datecreated = new Date(); this.color = color; this.filled = filled; public String getcolor() { return color; public void setcolor(string color) { this.color = color; public boolean isfilled() { return filled; public void setfilled(boolean filled) { this.filled = filled; public Date getdatecreated() { return datecreated; /** Return a string representation of this object */ public String tostring() { return "created on " +datecreated+ "\ncolor: " + color + " and filled: + filled; 4 public class GeometricObject { private String color = "white"; private boolean filled; private Date datecreated;
public class Circle extends GeometricObject { private double radius; public Circle() { public Circle(double radius) { this.radius = radius; public Circle(double radius, String color, boolean filled) { this.radius = radius; setcolor(color); setfilled(filled); public double getradius() { return radius; public void setradius(double radius) { this.radius = radius; public double getarea() { return radius * radius * Math.PI; public double getdiameter() { return 2 * radius; public double getperimeter() { return 2 * radius * Math.PI; /* Print the circle info */ public void printcircle() { System.out.println("The circle is created +getdatecreated() + " and the radius is " + radius); 5
public class Rectangle extends GeometricObject { private double width; private double height; public Rectangle() { public Rectangle(double width, double height) { this.width = width; this.height = height; public Rectangle(double width, double height, String color, boolean filled) { this.width = width; this.height = height; setcolor(color); setfilled(filled); public double getwidth() { return width; public void setwidth(double width) { this.width = width; public double getheight() { return height; public void setheight(double height) { this.height=height; public double getarea() { return width * height; public double getperimeter() {return 2 * (width + height); 6
public class TestCircleRectangle { public static void main(string[] args) { Circle circle = new Circle(1); System.out.println("A circle + circle.tostring()); System.out.println("The radius is + circle.getradius()); System.out.println("The area is + circle.getarea()); System.out.println("The diameter is + circle.getdiameter()); Rectangle rectangle = new Rectangle(2, 4); System.out.println("\nA rectangle + rectangle.tostring()); System.out.println("The area is + rectangle.getarea()); System.out.println("The perimeter is " + rectangle.getperimeter()); Output: 7
Are superclass s Constructor No. They are not inherited. Inherited? They are invoked explicitly or implicitly. Explicitly using the super keyword. A constructor is used to construct an instance of a class. Unlike properties and methods, a superclass's constructors are not inherited in the subclass. They can only be invoked from the subclasses' constructors, using the keyword super. If the keyword super is not explicitly used, the superclass's no-arg constructor is automatically invoked. 8
Superclass s Constructor Is Always Invoked A constructor may invoke an overloaded constructor or its superclass s constructor. If none of them is invoked explicitly, the compiler puts super() as the first statement in the constructor. For example, public A() { is equivalent to public A() { super(); public A(double d) { // some statements is equivalent to public A(double d) { super(); // some statements 9
Using the Keyword super The keyword super refers to the superclass of the class in which super appears. This keyword can be used in two ways: To call a superclass constructor To call a superclass method 10
CAUTION You must use the keyword super to call the superclass constructor. Invoking a superclass constructor s name in a subclass causes a syntax error. Java requires that the statement that uses the keyword super appear first in the constructor. 11
Constructor Chaining Constructing an instance of a class invokes all the superclasses constructors along the inheritance chain. This is called constructor chaining. public class Faculty extends Employee { public static void main(string[] args) { new Faculty(); public Faculty() { System.out.println("(4) Faculty's no-arg constructor is invoked"); class Employee extends Person { public Employee() { this("(2) Invoke Employee s overloaded constructor"); System.out.println("(3) Employee's no-arg constructor is invoked"); public Employee(String s) { System.out.println(s); class Person { public Person() { System.out.println("(1) Person's no-arg constructor is invoked"); 12
Trace Execution public class Faculty extends Employee { public static void main(string[] args) { new Faculty(); 1. Start from the main method public Faculty() { System.out.println("(4) Faculty's no-arg constructor is invoked"); class Employee extends Person { public Employee() { this("(2) Invoke Employee s overloaded constructor"); System.out.println("(3) Employee's no-arg constructor is invoked"); public Employee(String s) { System.out.println(s); class Person { public Person() { System.out.println("(1) Person's no-arg constructor is invoked"); 13
Trace Execution public class Faculty extends Employee { public static void main(string[] args) { new Faculty(); 2. Invoke Faculty constructor public Faculty() { System.out.println("(4) Faculty's no-arg constructor is invoked"); class Employee extends Person { public Employee() { this("(2) Invoke Employee s overloaded constructor"); System.out.println("(3) Employee's no-arg constructor is invoked"); public Employee(String s) { System.out.println(s); class Person { public Person() { System.out.println("(1) Person's no-arg constructor is invoked"); 14
Trace Execution public class Faculty extends Employee { public static void main(string[] args) { new Faculty(); public Faculty() { System.out.println("(4) Faculty's no-arg constructor is invoked"); 3. Invoke Employee s noarg constructor class Employee extends Person { public Employee() { this("(2) Invoke Employee s overloaded constructor"); System.out.println("(3) Employee's no-arg constructor is invoked"); public Employee(String s) { System.out.println(s); class Person { public Person() { System.out.println("(1) Person's no-arg constructor is invoked"); 15
Trace Execution public class Faculty extends Employee { public static void main(string[] args) { new Faculty(); public Faculty() { System.out.println("(4) Faculty's no-arg constructor is invoked"); 4. Invoke Employee(String) constructor class Employee extends Person { public Employee() { this("(2) Invoke Employee s overloaded constructor"); System.out.println("(3) Employee's no-arg constructor is invoked"); public Employee(String s) { System.out.println(s); class Person { public Person() { System.out.println("(1) Person's no-arg constructor is invoked"); 16
Trace Execution public class Faculty extends Employee { public static void main(string[] args) { new Faculty(); public Faculty() { System.out.println("(4) Faculty's no-arg constructor is invoked"); class Employee extends Person { public Employee() { this("(2) Invoke Employee s overloaded constructor"); System.out.println("(3) Employee's no-arg constructor is invoked"); public Employee(String s) { System.out.println(s); 5. Invoke Person() constructor class Person { public Person() { System.out.println("(1) Person's no-arg constructor is invoked"); 17
Trace Execution public class Faculty extends Employee { public static void main(string[] args) { new Faculty(); public Faculty() { System.out.println("(4) Faculty's no-arg constructor is invoked"); class Employee extends Person { public Employee() { this("(2) Invoke Employee s overloaded constructor"); System.out.println("(3) Employee's no-arg constructor is invoked"); public Employee(String s) { System.out.println(s); 6. Execute println class Person { public Person() { System.out.println("(1) Person's no-arg constructor is invoked"); 18
Trace Execution public class Faculty extends Employee { public static void main(string[] args) { new Faculty(); public Faculty() { System.out.println("(4) Faculty's no-arg constructor is invoked"); class Employee extends Person { public Employee() { this("(2) Invoke Employee s overloaded constructor"); System.out.println("(3) Employee's no-arg constructor is invoked"); public Employee(String s) { System.out.println(s); 7. Execute println class Person { public Person() { System.out.println("(1) Person's no-arg constructor is invoked"); 19
Trace Execution public class Faculty extends Employee { public static void main(string[] args) { new Faculty(); public Faculty() { System.out.println("(4) Faculty's no-arg constructor is invoked"); class Employee extends Person { public Employee() { this("(2) Invoke Employee s overloaded constructor"); System.out.println("(3) Employee's no-arg constructor is invoked"); public Employee(String s) { System.out.println(s); 8. Execute println class Person { public Person() { System.out.println("(1) Person's no-arg constructor is invoked"); 20
Trace Execution public class Faculty extends Employee { public static void main(string[] args) { new Faculty(); public Faculty() { System.out.println("(4) Faculty's no-arg constructor is invoked"); 9. Execute println class Employee extends Person { public Employee() { this("(2) Invoke Employee s overloaded constructor"); System.out.println("(3) Employee's no-arg constructor is invoked"); public Employee(String s) { System.out.println(s); class Person { public Person() { System.out.println("(1) Person's no-arg constructor is invoked"); 21
Example on the Impact of a Superclass without no-arg Constructor Find out the errors in the program: public class Apple extends Fruit { class Fruit { public Fruit(String name) { System.out.println("Fruit's constructor is invoked"); Corrected Program: 22
Declaring a Subclass A subclass extends properties and methods from the superclass. You can also: Add new properties Add new methods Override the methods of the superclass 23
Calling Superclass Methods You could rewrite the printcircle() method in the Circle class as follows: public void printcircle() { System.out.println("The circle is created " + super.getdatecreated() + " and the radius is " + radius); 24
Overriding Methods in the Superclass A subclass inherits methods from a superclass. Sometimes it is necessary for the subclass to modify the implementation of a method defined in the superclass. This is referred to as method overriding. public class Circle extends GeometricObject { // Other methods are omitted /** Override the tostring method defined in GeometricObject */ public String tostring() { return super.tostring() + "\nradius is " + radius; 25
NOTE An instance method can be overridden only if it is accessible. Thus a private method cannot be overridden, because it is not accessible outside its own class. If a method defined in a subclass is private in its superclass, the two methods are completely unrelated. 26
NOTE Like an instance method, a static method can be inherited. However, a static method cannot be overridden. If a static method defined in the superclass is redefined in a subclass, the method defined in the superclass is hidden. 27
Overriding vs. Overloading public class Test { public static void main(string[] args) { A a = new A(); a.p(10); a.p(10.0); class B { public void p(double i) { System.out.println(i * 2); class A extends B { // This method overrides the method in B public void p(double i) { System.out.println(i); public class Test { public static void main(string[] args) { A a = new A(); a.p(10); a.p(10.0); class B { public void p(double i) { System.out.println(i * 2); class A extends B { // This method overloads the method in B public void p(int i) { System.out.println(i); 28
The Object Class and Its Methods Every class in Java is descended from the java.lang.object class. If no inheritance is specified when a class is defined, the superclass of the class is Object. public class Circle {... Equivalent public class Circle extends Object {... 29
The tostring() method in Object The tostring() method returns a string representation of the object. The default implementation returns a string consisting of a class name of which the object is an instance, the at sign (@), and a number representing this object. Loan loan = new Loan(); System.out.println(loan.toString()); The code displays something like Loan@15037e5. This message is not very helpful or informative. Usually you should override the tostring method so that it returns a digestible string representation of the object. 30
Polymorphism, Dynamic Binding and Generic Programming public class PolymorphismDemo { ublic static void main(string[] s) { m(new GraduateStudent()); m(new Student()); m(new Person()); m(new Object()); public static void m(object x) { System.out.println(x.toString()); class GraduateStudent extends Student { class Student extends Person { public String tostring() { return "Student"; class Person extends Object { public String tostring() { return "Person"; PolymorphismDemo Method m takes a parameter of the Object type. You can invoke it with any object. An object of a subtype can be used wherever its supertype value is required. This feature is known as polymorphism. When the method m(object x) is executed, the argument x s tostring method is invoked. x may be an instance of GraduateStudent, Student, Person, or Object. Classes GraduateStudent, Student, Person, and Object have their own implementation of the tostring method. Which implementation is used will be determined dynamically by the Java Virtual Machine at runtime. This capability is known as dynamic binding. 31
Dynamic Binding Dynamic binding works as follows: Suppose an object o is an instance of classes C 1, C 2,..., C n-1, and C n, where C 1 is a subclass of C 2, C 2 is a subclass of C 3,..., and C n-1 is a subclass of C n. That is, C n is the most general class, and C 1 is the most specific class. In Java, C n is the Object class. If o invokes a method p, the JVM searches the implementation for the method p in C 1, C 2,..., C n-1 and C n, in this order, until it is found. Once an implementation is found, the search stops and the first-found implementation is invoked. C n C n-1..... C 2 C 1 Object Since o is an instance of C 1, o is also an instance of C 2, C 3,, C n-1, and C n 32
Method Matching vs. Binding Matching a method signature and binding a method implementation are two issues. The compiler finds a matching method according to parameter type, number of parameters, and order of the parameters at compilation time. A method may be implemented in several subclasses. The Java Virtual Machine dynamically binds the implementation of the method at runtime. 33
Generic Programming public class PolymorphismDemo { public static void main(string[] args) { m(new GraduateStudent()); m(new Student()); m(new Person()); m(new Object()); public static void m(object x) { System.out.println(x.toString()); class GraduateStudent extends Student { class Student extends Person { public String tostring() { return "Student"; class Person extends Object { public String tostring() { return "Person"; Polymorphism allows methods to be used generically for a wide range of object arguments. This is known as generic programming. If a method s parameter type is a superclass (e.g., Object), you may pass an object to this method of any of the parameter s subclasses (e.g., Student or String). When an object (e.g., a Student object or a String object) is used in the method, the particular implementation of the method of the object that is invoked (e.g., tostring) is determined dynamically. 34
Casting Objects You have already used the casting operator to convert variables of one primitive type to another. Casting can also be used to convert an object of one class type to another within an inheritance hierarchy. In the preceding section, the statement m(new Student()); assigns the object new Student() to a parameter of the Object type. This statement is equivalent to: Object o = new Student(); // Implicit casting m(o); The statement Object o = new Student(), known as implicit casting, is legal because an instance of Student is automatically an instance of Object. 35
Why Casting Is Necessary? Suppose you want to assign the object reference o to a variable of the Student type using the following statement: Student b = o; A compilation error would occur. Why does the statement Object o = new Student() work and the statement Student b = o doesn t? This is because a Student object is always an instance of Object, but an Object is not necessarily an instance of Student. Even though you can see that o is really a Student object, the compiler is not so clever to know it. To tell the compiler that o is a Student object, use an explicit casting. The syntax is similar to the one used for casting among primitive data types. Enclose the target object type in parentheses and place it before the object to be cast, as follows: Student b = (Student)o; // Explicit casting 36
Casting from Superclass to Subclass Explicit casting must be used when casting an object from a superclass to a subclass. This type of casting may not always succeed. Apple x = (Apple)fruit; Orange x = (Orange)fruit; 37
The instanceof Operator Use the instanceof operator to test whether an object is an instance of a class: Object myobject = new Circle();... // Some lines of code /** Perform casting if myobject is an instance of Circle */ if (myobject instanceof Circle) { System.out.println("The circle diameter is " + ((Circle)myObject).getDiameter());... 38
TIP To help understand casting, you may also consider the analogy of fruit, apple, and orange with the Fruit class as the superclass for Apple and Orange. An apple is a fruit, so you can always safely assign an instance of Apple to a variable for Fruit. However, a fruit is not necessarily an apple, so you have to use explicit casting to assign an instance of Fruit to a variable of Apple. 39
Example: Demonstrating Polymorphism and Casting This example creates two geometric objects: a circle, and a rectangle, invokes the displaygeometricobject method to display the objects. The displaygeometricobject displays the area and diameter if the object is a circle, and displays area if the object is a rectangle. TestPolymorphismCasting 40
public class CastingDemo { public static void main(string[] args) { Object object1 = new Circle(1); Object object2 = new Rectangle(1, 1); // Display circle and rectangle displayobject(object1); displayobject(object2); /** A method for displaying an object */ public static void displayobject(object object) { if(object instanceof Circle ) { System.out.println("The circle area is " + ((Circle4)object).getArea()) ; System.out.println("The circle diameter is " + ((Circle4)object).getDiameter()) ; else if(object instanceof Rectangle ) { System.out.println("The rectangle area is " + ((Rectangle1)object).getArea()); 41
The equals Method The equals() method compares the contents of two objects. The default implementation of the equals method in the Object class is as follows: public boolean equals(object obj) { return (this == obj); For example, the equals method is overridden in the Circle class. public boolean equals(object o) { if (o instanceof Circle) { return radius == ((Circle)o).radius; else return false; 42
NOTE The == comparison operator is used for comparing two primitive data type values or for determining whether two objects have the same references. The equals method is intended to test whether two objects have the same contents, provided that the method is modified in the defining class of the objects. The == operator is stronger than the equals method, in that the == operator checks whether the two reference variables refer to the same object. 43
The protected Modifier The protected modifier can be applied on data and methods in a class. A protected data or a protected method in a public class can be accessed by any class in the same package or its subclasses, even if the subclasses are in a different package. private, default, protected, public Visibility increases private, none (if no modifier is used), protected, public 44
Accessibility Summary Modifier on members in a class Accessed from the same class Accessed from the same package Accessed from a subclass Accessed from a different package public protected - default - - private - - - 45
Visibility Modifiers package p1; public class C1 { public int x; protected int y; int z; private int u; protected void m() { public class C2 { C1 o = new C1(); can access o.x; can access o.y; can access o.z; cannot access o.u; can invoke o.m(); package p2; public class C3 extends C1 { can access x; can access y; can access z; cannot access u; public class C4 extends C1 { can access x; can access y; cannot access z; cannot access u; public class C5 { C1 o = new C1(); can access o.x; cannot access o.y; cannot access o.z; cannot access o.u; can invoke m(); can invoke m(); cannot invoke o.m(); 46
A Subclass Cannot Weaken the Accessibility A subclass may override a protected method in its superclass and change its visibility to public. However, a subclass cannot weaken the accessibility of a method defined in the superclass. For example, if a method is defined as public in the superclass, it must be defined as public in the subclass. 47
NOTE The modifiers are used on classes and class members (data and methods), except that the final modifier can also be used on local variables in a method. A final local variable is a constant inside a method. 48
The final Modifier The final class cannot be extended: final class Math {... The final variable is a constant: final static double PI = 3.14159; The final method cannot be overridden by its subclasses. 49